Only burn specialist of State health services transferred from the only burn ward of the State
Sunday, 23 JULY 2023 | GAJENDRA SINGH NEGI | DEHRADUN
In absence of a burn surgeon, the family members of the patients admitted in the only burn ward in a government hospital of Uttarakhand are forced to take their patients to Delhi or other places. The burn ward of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Coronation Hospital, Dehradun has ten beds and necessary facilities to treat the patients with burn injuries. Patients from all parts of the State are admitted in this ward. Dr Kush Airen, the surgeon deployed in the hospital, was transferred to the sub- district hospital at Karnprayag in June this year. Following his transfer, Dr Airen was relieved on June 22 and after that the burn surgeries of the patients admitted in this ward of the Coronation Hospital have stopped. The hospital is now referring the patients needed to be operated upon to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh which has a capacity to admit only four burn patients due to which the patients are being shifted to the Safdarjang hospital New Delhi. Incidentally, Dr Airen is the only surgeon in the State health department of Uttarakhand who was performing surgeries of burn patients for the last 17 years. Over the years, he has specialised himself in this complex and very critical surgery. In the year 2022-23, he had conducted 575 surgeries in the Coronation Hospital and successfully treated 379 critical patients with burn injuries. After the transfer of Dr Airen, the patients are admitted in the burn ward of Coronation Hospital but for surgery the patients are being referred to the higher centres.
It is learnt that Dr Airen has written to the department to set up a centre treating burn patients in the place he has been transferred to so that his expertise is utilised.
It is pertinent to mention here that most of the burn patients admitted in the Coronation Hospital are poor and cannot afford expensive treatment. These patients require special care because the chances of infection are very high which results in high mortality of these patients.
When contacted over the issue, the director general of State health services, Dr Vinita Shah told The Pioneer that Dr Airen is a surgeon and there are three other surgeons in the Coronation hospital who are looking after the burn ward. When informed that the patients are not operated upon and being referred to other centres, she said that the matter would be looked into.
Meanwhile the burn patients are facing problems due to absence of a specialist doctor in the Coronation hospital. Son of an elderly female patient told this correspondent that the ward of the hospital is clean and fully equipped with facilities and a specialist should be deployed here.
